WRITING FOR HAUNTS

In the United States alone, there are over 4,000 October seasonal haunted houses and 300 theme parks that operate horror-themed events, not to mention thousands more of amateur neighborhood “haunted houses.” The Haunt Industry has grown exponentially and haunts have grown more sophisticated. Most haunted attractions, however, as audiences move through them, rely solely on a sequence of jump scares, and jump scares are, in fact, merely startling someone. How do you develop a Haunt that will fill your attendees with anxiety and dread, giving them nightmares for weeks afterwards, rather than just startle them. Tired of performers just yelling, screaming and jumping out? Want to move from simple jump scares to filling your audiences and attendees with a lingering sense of dread? This workshop teaches you how to craft brief scenes designed to disturb and terrify guests at a Haunted Attraction, linking them together to tell an extended narrative, and introduces you to techniques for raising the fear level with just a few lines. Use your horror writing skills to craft scripts for Haunts. Attendees will learn the challenges of writing brief scenes, how to make a virtue of little (or no) resources, techniques for creating scenarios and characters, as well as methods for using horror literature to shape recognizable stories for all audiences.

About the Instructor

Kevin Wetmore is a five-time Bram Stoker Award™ nominee and the artistic director of The Haunting of Hannon, an interactive, multiple simultaneously staged literary haunted house in a university library, now in its eleventh year. He has taught this workshop previously at Midsummer Scream, the world's largest Halloween and Horror Convention.

Enroll

NOTE: After Completing Your Teachable Registration, You Will Be Asked to Register for the Zoom Webinar for this Course.

You Must Register in Zoom to Participate.

$65

Writing for Haunts

Learn to write an engaging, frightening script for a live haunted attraction.

In the United States alone, there are over 4,000 October seasonal haunted houses and 300 theme parks that operate horror-themed events, not to mention thousands more of amateur neighborhood “haunted houses.” The haunt industry has grown exponentially and haunts have grown more sophisticated. Most haunted attractions, however, as audiences move through them, rely solely on a sequence of jump scares, and jump scares are, in fact, merely startling someone. How do you develop a haunt that will fill your attendees with anxiety and dread, giving them nightmares for weeks afterwards, rather than just startle them? Tired of performers just yelling, screaming and jumping out? Want to move from simple jump scares to filling your audiences and attendees with a lingering sense of dread? This workshop teaches you how to craft brief scenes designed to disturb and terrify guests at a haunted attraction, linking them together to tell an extended narrative, and introduces you to techniques for raising the fear level with just a few lines. Use your horror writing skills to craft scripts for haunts. Attendees will learn the challenges of writing brief scenes, how to make a virtue of little (or no) resources, techniques for creating scenarios and characters, as well as methods for using horror literature to shape recognizable stories for all audiences.